


Inappropriate Conduct

by CatherineMorgenstern



Series: Master & Commander [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch, F/M, Gabe's exasperated half the time and a smooth bastard the rest of the time, Jesse's a punk, Mutual Attraction, Snow, Training Session, mission in Germany, shameless use of the bedsharing trope because I'm trash, still addicted to coffee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 06:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13898673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherineMorgenstern/pseuds/CatherineMorgenstern
Summary: After you’d gotten dragged into one of Jesse’s pranks, the Blackwatch Commander issues a dose of his special kind of punishment: early morning exercise. Your training session ended on a heated note. Too bad that you’re leaving on a mission with Reyes the next day. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, you two find yourselves forced to get rather close and personal.





	Inappropriate Conduct

**Author's Note:**

> I do not play OW, so if that is a no-no for you, turn back now.
> 
> The location of the mission I’m sending them on is in Bavaria, Germany. I wanted a snowy landscape and, after initially considering Russia, figured I might as well choose a location I’m actually familiar with.
> 
> I did not intend for this to be this long. #SorryNotSorry
> 
> Shout-out to [MonticolaSolitarius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonticolaSolitarius/pseuds/MonticolaSolitarius) for being super supportive and nudging me in the right direction for the mission and my dear [alexiela73](https://alexiela73.tumblr.com/) (go check her out for awesome OW writing) over on Tumblr for being kind enough to help clear up some details concerning Omnics and give me a concrete mission. You guys are awesome!
> 
> I can’t thank my awesome beta,[ Heeley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heeley/pseuds/Heeley), enough for putting up with my inability of shutting up in my recent pieces. I’m making her fall for Gabe bit by bit and that’s probably the biggest compliment anyone could give me.  
> Thanks, lovely, I couldn’t do this without you <3

The morning after the Valentine’s Day dinner, you’d woken up to two new texts. One from your sister (“ _Master & Commander, eh? Kinky! _”) – you’d groaned and wanted to strangle Reyes for that stupid comment even though he’d only made it to save your ass -  and one from your mum that was essentially a love letter to your Commander. Afterwards, you’d very much wanted to throw your phone at the wall and scream out of sheer frustration.

That had been about a week ago. Ever since then the both of them had bombarded you with questions about your non-existent relationship. You were constantly torn between wanting to come clean and dreading having to confess your white lie at all.

And as if that hadn’t been enough you found yourself to be extremely … aware of Commander Reyes whenever you crossed paths with him. Every time you’d catch a whiff of his cologne, you felt yourself sporting a rather dopey smile. You’d almost slipped up at a meeting and addressed him as Gabriel, which had made you turn bright red and had drawn some curious glances from your fellow Blackwatch agents. After that, you’d tried to stay out of the Commander’s way as much as possible lest you’d embarrass yourself further, which you were wont to do around him anyway.

You were on your way to the kitchen just now in desperate need of a coffee fix when Jesse came barrelling towards you with something black in his hand and a wide-eyed look on his face. Before you could so much as ask him what was going on, he’d clamped the black, rectangular box under his arm and grabbed your shoulders.

“I need’cha to cover for me, sweet pea!” he said imploringly.

“What?”

“Just tell the jefe you ‘aven’t seen me, ‘kay?”

“What did you do?” you groaned, sensing trouble.

“Nothin’!”

“Jesse…”

“Please, darlin’,” he pleaded, looking at you with those puppy dog eyes.

“It’s impossible to lie to Commander Reyes, you know that.”

“Yeah, but yer can distract him long enough for me to sneak back into ‘is office.”

“The fuck did you do?”

“Just borrowed somethin’ and if yer ‘elp me, Imma put it right back.”

“McCree!”

The Commander’s bellow was loud enough to make you wince. He sounded really pissed off.

“Uh-oh,” Jesse murmured before dashing past you, vanishing just as Reyes turned the corner.

“Agent,” he barked with a deep frown furrowing his eyebrows, “where’s the ingrate?”

Taking a deep breath, you tried to sound as innocent as possible. “I don’t know, Sir.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, arching an eyebrow at you. Suddenly you found it very difficult not to gawk at his bulging biceps.

“That so?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Would I lie to you?”

“To protect Jesse? Yes, you would.”

“Fine, but I haven’t seen him since this morning.”

“He just came this way, you must’ve at least seen him.”

“I ... I was daydreaming. Must’ve missed him.”

“Hmmm.”

You tried to look as unassuming as you possibly could while looking up at him. “Maybe he’s training.”

“You know very well that the training rooms are the opposite way.”

Biting your lip, you tried to come up with something different but were drawing a blank.

“You know what I think, Agent?” he drawled.

“No, Commander,” you said warily.

“I think you’re lying to me.”

“I am not!”

“Didn’t you promise me not to make any trouble at work?”

“If I recall correctly that was only regarding the very next day,” you replied rather smugly.

“How are your parents, by the way? Maybe I should give them a call,” he mused, pointedly. “Just to thank them for that lovely dinner, of course.”

You gaped at him. “You wouldn’t!”

“Where’s McCree?”

“Why are you looking for him anyway?”

“He stole my cleaning kit.”

“Oh, Jess,” you muttered. Everyone knew Commander Reyes was obsessed with maintaining his beloved shotguns; not that Jesse was any better in regards to his Peacekeeper. Boys and their toys, you thought with a mental sigh. “Are you sure he stole it? Maybe you just misplaced it?”

“I do not misplace my stuff,” he huffed.

“Right, ‘cause you’re infallible.”

Commander Reyes rolled his eyes at you. “No, because I’m organised.”

“I was just gonna get a cup of coffee, why don’t you join me and then we’ll go to your office and check?”

You estimated that Jesse should have enough time to place the gun cleaning kit back where he’d found it in the meantime.

“Are you trying to distract me, Agent?” he inquired with narrowed eyes.

“Me?” you gasped theatrically, clasping a hand to your sternum. “Never.”

The corners of Gabriel’s mouth twitched at that. “Fine. Coffee it is,” he grumbled with that familiar tiny smirk before shaking his finger at you. “But if my kit isn’t where it’s supposed to be, you’re gonna search this entire building with me until we’ve found the ingrate.”

“Deal,” you said solemnly before tugging on his elbow to turn him around and walk with you in the direction he’d just come from, suppressing the urge to look over your shoulder for Jesse.

“That was a low blow,” you said.

“What was?”

“Threatening me with my parents?”

“Ah.” He grinned and shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

You elbowed him playfully.

“They’ve been asking about you, you know.”

“Have they now?”

Humming in affirmation, you added, “Told you they wanted to adopt you.”

“Jealous?”

“No!”

“Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” he said slyly.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes at him.  

“Have you told them yet?” Gabriel asked.

“About us ‘breaking up’?”

“Hmmm.”

“No. I’m trying to wait for the perfect moment.”

“The perfect moment?”

“Yeah. To really rip out their hearts.”

He barked a laugh. “¡Dios! You’re ruthless.”

“And that surprises you because …?”

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d use it on your family.” He narrowed his eyes at you speculatively, “What do you mean ‘trying to wait’?”

“Well,” you pouted, “there’s a very good chance my mother riles me up so much that it’ll just burst out in the heat of the moment.”

Gabriel side-eyed you pretty hard for a moment.

“Let me guess,” he surmised, “you’ve almost let it slip already.”

You huffed in annoyance as you stepped into Blackwatch’s kitchen. “Yeah. Like I said, she hasn’t shut up about you ever since that dinner and it’s pretty damn annoying.”

“I told you,” he replied, sounding smug, “parents love me.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it, thank you. Now shut up.”

He laughed and the husky, rich sound sent a tingle down your spine. Keep it together, you told yourself while preparing a pot of coffee. The expensive one, naturally. A while ago, you’d stashed a French Press in the kitchen because not only did you prefer brewing coffee that way but the state the other agents usually left the coffee machine in made you shudder. When you’d been new to Blackwatch, you’d cleaned it a few times but it never lasted long since no one else seemed to bother. You’d think trained soldiers possessed more discipline, but apparently that didn’t extend to cleaning anything besides their weapons. You didn’t allow anyone aside from yourself and Gabriel to use your French Press since you didn’t trust them to handle it with care. Commander Reyes was the exception because he was just as much of a coffee addict as you were and was the only one who could actually be trusted to clean the damn thing after using it.

As you turned around, you saw that Gabriel had taken a seat at the small kitchen table. Pulling yourself up to sit on the counter, you said, “You know he doesn’t mean anything by it, right?”

Gabriel arched an eyebrow at you. “You mean Jesse?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I know. But the ingrate has a particular problem understanding the difference between what’s mine and what’s his.”

You smirked knowingly.

“What?”

“You know who you two remind me of with your constant bickering?” you asked nonchalantly.

He narrowed his eyes. “No?”

“My mum and me.”

The Commander snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”

“No,” you said slowly, “no, it’s really not. I’m pretty sure it’s as much about teasing you as it is about getting your attention.”

“He gets plenty attention.”

“True, but he looks up to you.”

“And how would you know?”

“I’m pretty observant,” you explained.  “And besides, Jess is my friend. Most of the time anyway.”

“Most of the time?”

“Hmmm, except for when he plays pranks on me.”

“Ah, so what you’re saying is that I should endure it graciously while you get to pout and whine?”

“Precisely,” you said, grinning cheekily at him. “You’ve got a responsibility to be a role model, after all. The burdens of leadership and all that.”

“Indeed,” he said dryly. “However did I get so lucky?”

“Awww, c’mon now, Commander,” you drawled before adding in a sing-song voice, “You know you love us.”

Gabriel tried glaring at you menacingly – you knew from experience he could look very menacing indeed when he wanted to – but he couldn’t keep the grin off his face. Chuckling, you hopped off the counter and poured the both of you a generous amount of coffee before you added milk to the mugs and handed him his. Appreciatively, you inhaled the strong aroma before taking a sip and outright moaned at the buttery taste that contained a hint of chocolate. Fucking delicious.

Reyes coughed loudly before turning rather sharply on his heel, marching towards the door and throwing a gruff-sounding “Come on” over his shoulder.

Blinking owlishly at his sudden departure, you shrugged it off and followed him while taking care not to spill your coffee. As you wandered towards his office, you prayed to all that was holy that Jess had had enough time to get everything cleared up. You didn’t care if Jesse got into trouble now since you’d done as he’d asked and distracted Gabriel but you’d prefer not to be caught red-handed in a lie by your commanding officer, thank you very much. Just as Commander Reyes turned the corner with you hot on his heels, you saw the damned cowboy coming out of the office, freezing mid-step like a deer caught in headlights.

You cursed under your breath as, for the second time in the past fifteen minutes, Gabriel bellowed, “McCree!”

Jesse swivelled on his heels, ready to take off, when your Commander said in a dangerously soft voice, “Take one more step and I’ll make you get up every day for the next month at four in the morning to train.”

McCree did a weird wobbling motion as he weighed the pro’s and con’s of running for his life regardless of Gabriel’s threat. The sight made it very hard for you not to dissolve into uncontrollable giggles.

You must’ve made some kind of noise, though,  because Gabriel glanced at you over his shoulder and said ominously, “I’ll get to you in a second.”

Gulping, you looked at Jesse who returned your panicked expression and you were certain you looked just as nauseous at the threat as he did. Reyes’ preferred method of punishing his agents was to make you get up in the middle of the night and put you through a gruelling training regimen before releasing you to see to your regular duties. Even trained soldiers like you collapsed frequently halfway through it while it didn’t seem to affect the Commander at all; thanks to his super soldier strength, no doubt. Cheating bastard. The first – and only – time you’d incurred his wrath by disobeying a direct order on a mission, you’d thrown up after twenty minutes and cursed his name to Hell and back.

“Jefe, I was just—“

“Get inside,” he barked at Jesse, stalking after him.

Just before he entered his office, he levelled a glare at you. “You wait right here.”

“Yes, Commander,” you replied, meekly.

For the next ten minutes or so you heard a lot of shouting. It was too muted to make out the exact words but Jesse was undoubtedly getting a tongue-lashing that would leave his ears ringing for a while.

When the door opened again to reveal a hunched-over McCree, you started to make a sympathetic expression before the jerk glanced up at you from under his lashes and gave you an insolent grin and a thumbs up. You stared at him speechlessly. The boy’s got some nerve! Why, oh why did you always let yourself be dragged into the cowboy’s damned shenanigans?

You heard the Commander call you inside. Slowly, you walked towards the door, keeping your eyes on Jesse’s retreating form. He’d shed his slumped over posture the second he was sure Reyes couldn’t see him anymore, relaxing into his usual swagger instead. You cursed under your breath. Great. And he just abandoned you to deal with the aftermath on your own.

Jess owed you for this; big time.

Squaring your shoulders, you stepped into Gabriel’s office apprehensively. He was sitting behind his desk, elbows braced on the surface, chin resting on his interlocked fingers. There was a deep frown between his brows and his lips were pressed into a thin line. You tried your best not to swallow audibly or give away how nervous his silence made you in any other way.

“Agent.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“You lied to me.”

Biting your lip, you nodded slowly and said, “I did, Sir.”

“Straight to my face.”

He kept his voice suspiciously neutral. You couldn’t tell whether he was truly angry at you or not.

“I stood up for a fellow agent.”

“No,” he said, “you lied for a fellow agent. To your commanding officer. You think that’s behaviour worthy of a Blackwatch agent?”

For a second, you debated replying with something like it being completely appropriate since Blackwatch was covert ops, after all, but you knew Commander Reyes well enough to be aware that it wouldn’t go over well.

Nervously rocking back and forth on your heels, you replied, “No, Sir, it isn’t.”

“Damn straight, Agent. It’s highly inappropriate conduct, is what it is. What do you think your punishment should be?”

Oh crap, you thought, this kind of question never ended well. If you went too mild in your suggestion, he’d up his punishment and if you went too hard, he might just go with it and you’d have only yourself to blame for the extra hours.

“What did Jesse get?”

You thought you detected the hint of a smile in his eyes at that.

“A week of early training,” he said. “With me.”

It took all your willpower to suppress a groan at that. So his earlier threat hadn’t been entirely empty. Shit.

Taking a deep breath, you said, “Well, since I only played a small part in this, I think a day of that might suffice?”

You couldn’t help sounding hopeful at the end. One morning was more than enough to wear you out for the rest of the week, you knew.

“Hmmm.”

He sounded contemplative as he stared you down. You tried your best not to fidget under his glare.

“I think that would be appropriate, Agent,” he finally said. “Report to the training grounds tomorrow morning at 0400 hours sharp.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You may leave now,” he said dismissively, leaning back in his chair.

You didn’t need to be told twice. Better to let him cool off on his own, maybe that’d make him go easy on you tomorrow.  Huffing out a silent, mirthless laugh, you murmured to yourself, “Yeah, right.”

* * *

 

At a quarter to 4 AM, you sluggishly dragged your tired body towards the outside training grounds. You’d decided to stay on base last night, so you wouldn’t have to get up even earlier in order to be here on time. So far, you’d already downed two giant mugs of especially strong coffee and an espresso yet you still felt like you might fall asleep on your feet any second. And it was raining. Granted, it was only a drizzle, but you cursed rather colourfully nonetheless. Of course the weather had to take a turn for the worse just when you were scheduled to endure Reyes’ diabolical punishment.  

Coming to a stop underneath the roof where you wouldn’t get soaked right away, you started your regular stretching exercises while keeping your eyes peeled for Jesse, who was nowhere in sight. As you bent forward to nimbly touch your toes, you saw Commander Reyes exit a door close to you. Straightening up, you took a stand with your feet hip width apart and brought your extended arm across your chest, holding it at the elbow with your free hand before switching to repeat the same motion with your other arm.

“Morning, Commander,” you mumbled.

“Good morning, Agent. What a wonderful day it is, wouldn’t you agree?” he replied way too cheerfully.

You narrowed your eyes at his obvious glee.

“Not a morning person, huh?” he quipped.

Giving him what Jesse and Genji had dubbed your I-shall-kill-you-slowly-and-painfully glare, you huffed and asked, “Where’s McCree?”

“He won’t be joining us today.”

“What?!” you exclaimed in a voice that was embarrassingly close to a squeal. “Why the hell not?”

“He’ll complete his punishment next week.”

You stared at him before growling through clenched teeth, “Why?”

There was a slight whine in your voice that you couldn’t hide. You’d hoped you’d at least have Jesse with you, so you could suffer together. He’s the reason you got into this mess in the first place, after all.

“Because I’m leaving for a mission early tomorrow.”

“Oh,” you said before smirking at the Commander. “And you don’t want to give him time to recover in between, huh?”

Gabriel dragged a hand over his goatee, trying to conceal a rather devilish grin. “My, my, Agent. What do you take me for?”

“A hardass?”

That made him laugh, but he didn’t rebuff your statement as he went through his own stretching exercises.

You grabbed your ankle behind your body and pulled your leg up as far as possible, holding it in position for ten seconds before switching to the other leg.

“What’s your mission, Commander? Or aren’t you allowed to tell me?”

“Oh, I’m allowed to tell you,” he said with a peculiar, secretive smile but didn’t elaborate.

After a few minutes in utter silence, he clapped his hands together. “All right. Ready to start?”

You pouted at him and made a small noise of protest in the back of your throat before reluctantly admitting, “I guess.”

“Let’s go then! Fifteen laps for a start should do the trick.”

“Fifteen?!”

“You got a problem with that, Agent?”

“Duh!” you exclaimed, putting your hands on your hips and levelling a glare at him. “I wasn’t the one who stole your stupid kit. I only helped Jesse the moron!”

“And yet you negotiated one morning of training. Need I remind you that I’m your commanding officer and thus call the shots?”

“You know—“

“If you say that it’s my fault you decided to band together with McCree for making sure Blackwatch is such a tight-knit group, I’m making you run ten more laps,” he threatened before starting to run in place, waiting for you to join him. “Move your ass, Agent!”

You knew he wouldn’t be swayed by you dragging your feet, so you fell in step beside him, but made sure to pout exaggeratedly at him. Fifteen fucking laps, you thought. The stupid training grounds weren’t even terrain; they’d made sure to include a variety of hills to make it really uncomfortable and it was vast, making one lap span approximately 800 metres – double the amount of a usual track, meaning fifteen laps equalled 12 km. And this was just warm-up. Usually, this course was reserved for new recruits who went through basic training. Wistfully, you thought of the warm gym inside where you and the other agents normally trained.

Though you were used to working out regularly, if there was one thing you hated with a passion it was running. Its mind-numbing monotony never failed to put you in a bad mood and the amount of laps that still loomed ahead of you made you want to stomp your foot like a petulant child. You knew it was his standard warm-up on occasions like this but you couldn’t help but glare scornfully at your Commander as if he’d concocted this torture specifically for you. And if this hadn’t dampened your mood enough already, Gabriel started humming – humming! – next to you. You seriously considered tripping him just to make him shut up.

Had you mentioned that you weren’t a morning person?

While part of you wanted to be as annoying as possible towards your commanding officer in the hopes that you’d either make him regret punishing you at all or maybe even make him want to get this over with faster, you were also supremely prideful, which meant that instead of complaining obnoxiously, you gritted your teeth and endured it silently. When you two completed the last one, you were sweat-soaked, moody at the prospect of still having to go through the rest of the punishment and in desperate need of coffee.

“Great,” Commander Reyes chirped, “let’s switch to parkour.”

“Don’t sound so bloody cheerful,” you snapped as you followed him.

He laughed in response, patting you on the shoulder which made you want to hit him. You did like parkour better than straight up running because it at least engaged your mind by testing your reflexes but crawling through the mud, jumping over various obstacles and climbing stupid walls at an ungodly hour was most definitely not your definition of fun.

Your muscles were burning, you felt distinctly nauseous and you knew there was still weight-lifting and hand-to-hand combat ahead of you. Swearing under your breath, you promised yourself you wouldn’t help Jesse with anything ever again. This was so not worth it.

“You not gonna throw up again, are you, Agent?” Gabriel taunted, reminding you of your first experience with his style of punishment.

Biting your lip so hard you tasted blood, you tried to keep your temper under control. In his defence, he always went through the same gruelling exercises he made his agents complete, but you felt a rage unlike any other when you noted how utterly relaxed he still looked. He’d barely broken a sweat! If it hadn’t been for the mud covering his clothes, no one would’ve guessed he’d done anything but supervise you from the sidelines. And the fact that he’d actually been there right beside you made it almost impossible to loathe him as much as you wanted to right now. So you reminded yourself that he’s basically a super soldier and that that was cheating, because you needed an outlet for your current anger.

“C’mon,” Gabriel said, “let’s get changed and we’ll continue inside.”

You were beyond glad to get out of the rain and these wet, muddy clothes.

Once you were dry and warm again, your mood improved significantly though you still longed for a nice, hot mug of coffee. The weight-lifting was hard on your straining muscles but bearable as you were distracted by thoughts of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Blackwatch Commander himself. Normally, you had a particular affinity for that almost intimate style of fighting which you seldom got to use out in the field. It brought you genuine joy to assess an opponent’s skill and tactics and adapt yours accordingly, but Reyes was a soldier who had years of experience on you. He’d tested you in combat when you joined Blackwatch, so you knew for a fact that you couldn’t even hold a candle to the various different styles he’d studied over the course of his career. If he intended to really teach you a lesson and make an example out of you, you stood no chance.

You determinately silenced that little voice in your head that pointed out how physically close you got to sparring partners in the ring. And so what if a slight shiver of anticipatory pleasure ran through you at the thought?

Tossing you a bottle of water, Gabriel asked, “Ready for sparring?”

Greedily, you emptied half the bottle before wiping your mouth with the back of your hand. “Are you sure you are ready, old man?” you replied provocatively, putting emphasis on the word ‘you’.

He grinned at you, reminding you of a deadly predator with his prey in sight, ready to pounce. “You think mouthing off to your commanding officer before a fight is a good tactic, Agent?”

You hummed in mock contemplation. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

Licking his lower lip, he said quietly, “That we will.”

As you strolled towards the ring, you moved your neck from side to side, rotating your shoulders to loosen up.  You tried not to let your eyes linger on the defined muscles that were showing through the Commander’s tight workout shirt, but it did make your mouth go rather dry. Shaking yourself out of your inappropriate thoughts, you took your position opposite him and assumed basic fighting stance, returning his calculating gaze.

The both of you started slowly circling each other and you couldn’t help but admire the way he moved. Commander Reyes was tall and muscly but he moved with a controlled grace that strongly reminded you of a panther stalking a rival. The thought almost made you smile. Not only because he certainly looked the part, clad in all black, but also because he regarded you with such scrutiny that you knew you weren’t prey in his eyes, but an equal. You couldn’t allow your mind to wander too much, though, lest you got distracted.

Every sense seemed to sharpen as you waited for him to make the first move; the scent of rain clinging to the both of you and the almost clinical whiff of antiseptic that was used to clean the gym while failing to mask the lingering hints of sweat underneath, the distant noise of raindrops hitting the roof and bustling from the cafeteria as the first agents grabbed their breakfast, the feeling of the rough mat under your bare feet and the slight ache in your cramped muscles from the previous work-out that promised to leave you sore later.

You knew he was trying to wait you out so you’d attack first, but while you felt a nervous flutter in your stomach due to the sheer anticipation, Gabriel seemed utterly calm. That’s what years of experience did, you supposed, and it worked. Already, you could feel yourself getting antsy at this continued, strained silence, but you reminded yourself that it was what he expected and so you couldn’t give in. It would only play into his hands.

And then he attacked.

The movement was lightning fast and you had trouble blocking it in time as your mind tried to catch up with what was happening. So instead of outright blocking, you pivoted, causing his punch to miss you by mere inches and did a roundhouse kick that struck him in the chest with the sole of your foot.

Or at least that’d been the plan.

Gabriel managed to grab your ankle before you could really make contact and used your momentum to make you flip in mid-air by twisting said ankle. If you didn’t want to get injured, you had to go with the movement which caused you to land on your front. Doubtlessly, he’d planned on making you smack into the mat face-first, but you adapted fast enough to land in a push-up position while forcefully freeing your foot from his grasp. Getting to your feet and back into fighting stance as fast as possible, you had to duck immediately as you were met with a fist coming your way, intended to take advantage of your distraction. Taking the opportunity of him wasting energy and you being level with his stomach, you changed your angle and knocked into him with your shoulder, causing him to take a stabilising step backwards as he doubled over ever so slightly to keep his balance. In that split second, you knew he was going to strike out again, so you went into a crouch and swiped his feet out from under him.

That should’ve made him land like a turtle on his back.

And it did but it lasted only a few seconds. Instantly, he swung his legs up to his chest in order to gain momentum and pushed himself off the floor with his hands, performing a kick-up that made him land in a half-crouch, facing you.

You grinned as you started circling each other once more before he went on the offensive. You were apt at blocking him while landing a number of minor punches yourself. The thrill of the fight was rushing through your veins, making you feel alive. Gabriel kept his face carefully neutral, but you recognised the sparkle in his eyes that meant he was enjoying this as much as you were.

This time, you took the initiative and struck out at his head with your dominant right arm in a feint before jabbing his side with your left instead, landing a solid punch. Even though you’d put a considerable amount of strength into it, you didn’t even get a grunt out of him. Frowning, you skipped backwards, putting distance between you and him again. He must have noticed your expression because he gave you a cheeky grin in response that angered you but also made you wary. The Blackwatch Commander looked far too sure and superior for your taste and it immediately put you on high alert.

A few more rounds of circling and both of you had landed some hard kicks and punches on the other but none of it had been strong enough to put an end to the fight. You were breathing hard by now, feeling the fine tendrils of your hair cling to the damp skin at your temples and even Gabriel had finally broken a sweat, but he didn’t seem nearly as winded as you were.

Though he was tensed and never let you out of his sight, there was an ease about him that you envied. Maybe it was because this wasn’t a real fight or maybe he was just in his element while fighting.

“Let’s end it, shall we?” he drawled, eyes fixed on yours as a smirk graced his lips.

The tension in the room was palpable now, creating goosebumps all over your body. The way he said it was so condescending it should have made you see red immediately. Instead, you felt yourself getting seriously turned on by his careless arrogance. There was something incredibly sexy about his self-assuredness.

Gabriel moved in with a speed that reminded you of a cobra striking. Throwing several straight punches directed at your sternum, you were distracted by blocking them when he punched you in the gut with a hook that knocked the breath from your lungs. You cursed yourself since you should’ve known what he was doing. Those first punches you’d been busy trying to block were solid ones but not strong enough to break through your defence. He’d been feinting, deliberately making you protect your upper body so he could take advantage of your vulnerable stomach by changing his angle.

You were still reeling from that manoeuvre when he hooked his left foot behind your right calf. When you lost your balance you grabbed his shoulders as an anchor while you somehow managed to bring down the heel of your own free foot into the back of his knee, putting your entire weight on him which caused his leg to fold. Already, the both of you were tilting towards the floor. He’d retracted his foot from your calf in the meantime, so you jammed your knee against his hip in order to change the angle of the fall, hoping it would cause him to flip far enough that you could end up on top of him.

It almost worked.

It wasn’t enough to make him land on his back, but you slammed into the floor on your sides, hurting your shoulder and hip. One of your legs was stuck between his thigh and the mat, making it impossible for you to wriggle out and push Gabriel onto his back.

So much for your grand plan.

Predictably, he took the opportunity to try flipping you onto yours instead. You tried to fight him by punching him wherever possible – except for the face as there was an unspoken rule to not attack the face in training fights - but there was only so much you could do against 6'1" of pure muscle.  Managing to get your upper body as high up from the ground as possible, you did your best to get your damned leg free by pushing on his shoulders. So preoccupied were you that the low chuckles coming from your Commander didn’t register at first. When it did, it was already too late. With one swift movement, he’d snaked his arm around your waist to grab you around the hips and pushed on your shoulder with the other. Since your head hadn’t been lying on the mat already when he did so, you closed your eyes, instinctively bracing for impact.

But it never came.

Gabriel had cupped the back of your head, keeping it suspended slightly off the floor. Blinking open your eyes, you were met with the Blackwatch Commander inches from your face. For a moment, you were in a sort of limbo while you stared into each other’s eyes. Up close his were the colour of dark chocolate with almost golden flakes that seemed to reflect the light and you felt as though you could spend hours just observing how they seemed to dance. If you hadn’t been pressed to the entire length of his body the way you were, you might have done just that.

A thrill of excitement shot through you as you became acutely aware of how close you were. Your hands were still grasping his shoulders and you needed all your willpower to not start kneading the corded muscles beneath your fingers. In order to keep yourself from letting your hands wander down to his biceps, you assessed the rest of your position and drew in a shuddering breath as you noticed how your breasts were flattened against his defined chest as his bulk pressed you down. Slowly, your breathing accelerated as desire started to cloud your mind. Inhaling deeply in an effort to calm down, you not only got a whiff of his scent – that unobtrusive cologne he favoured mixed with sweat – but also felt how hard his stomach was against yours.  It wasn’t helpful at all when you started wondering whether he had a six or an eight pack and since your legs were basically wrapped around his hips, you couldn’t fail to notice that his muscles weren’t the only hard thing about his anatomy right now.

Your brain seemed to short-circuit at the feeling of being this close to him. Instinctively, you wanted to grind against him, but Gabriel was weighing you down so much that there was no room for you to move.

Gulping audibly, you attempted to distract yourself by concentrating back on his face. Big mistake. Gabriel’s pupils were blown wide and he was just shy of panting. As his rapid puffs of breath hit your lips, you noticed the scent of coffee and suddenly had the indescribable urge to check whether or not he tasted like it, too.

You were just about to change your grip on his shoulders to slide your hands up behind his neck in order to pull his face down to yours when Gabriel made a choked, coughing noise. Abruptly, he disentangled himself from you as though you’d burnt him and sprang to his feet. Though his face was inscrutable once more – no hint of the glassy-eyed arousal remaining – he couldn’t hide how heavy his breathing still was. To your embarrassment, you were still lying sprawled on the floor while your body needed some time to pump oxygen back into your muddled brain. As you started to pick yourself off the floor, Gabriel offered you a hand. Gratefully, you grasped it and let him haul you to your feet.

“I think we’re done here,” he said hoarsely, turning on his heel and leaving the ring without sparing you another glance.

His dismissal caused a blush to rise to your cheeks as you understood how uncomfortable the situation you’d just found yourselves in seconds ago had made him. Forlornly, you were left standing in the ring, watching him walk away towards the changing rooms and showers. Just before he vanished through the door, he paused and turned his head to the side as though he wanted to look at you from over his shoulder but stopped himself from making eye-contact.

“You’re going on that mission with me tomorrow, Agent,” he informed you. “Report to my office after lunch to go over the details.”

And without waiting for your response, he left.

* * *

 

You’d taken a long shower after that awkward end to your training session, mulling over all the things you could have said or done to ease the tension. Or what you could have done differently to avoid the situation from happening altogether. This unpleasant sense of uncertainty regarding Commander Reyes made you supremely uncomfortable since you’d been on such good terms lately and you put great value on that easy camaraderie. You’d just hate it if this little incident should change everything.

Only when you barely ate more than a few bites for lunch did it dawn on you how much you dreaded going to see your Commander. Listlessly, you picked at your food when two bodies slumped down on either side of you.

“What’s with the long face, sweat pea?” Jesse asked cheerfully right before he began to stuff his face.

Arching an eyebrow at him, your lips curled at his lack of table manners. You’d chastised him a million times on this subject and it made your eye twitch when he behaved like some caveman because you knew from personal experience that he was perfectly capable of being the epitome of class when he felt like it since you’d observed it on missions many a time when you’d needed to blend in.

“Nothing,” you said, unwilling to discuss what had happened with anyone, least of all Jesse.

As always, Genji was the quieter of the two, laying a hand on your shoulder in solidarity rather than prodding you with questions. You put your head on his shoulder for a little while, taking the quiet comfort he offered you. Touching Genji was always a sensitive subject, but after a mission that went wrong, leaving the two of you stranded for three days with malfunctioning communication devices, you’d formed a tentative bond of genuine friendship with the cyborg ninja and no longer felt as though you needed to tiptoe around him.

“C’mon,” Jesse said, nudging you with his elbow, “spit it out. Maybe we can help.”

“You can’t.”

You knew he meant well, but there was absolutely no way you were going to tell another soul what had transpired this morning. Ever.

As if the cowboy had read your mind, he continued, “How was trainin’, by the way?  Did Reyes put you through the ringer?”

Snorting derisively, you replied, “Of course he did, Jess. What did you expect?”

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

At least he had the grace to look contrite. You smiled sweetly at him, which caused him to lean away from you and regard you suspiciously.

“Don’t worry about it, darling. I’ll be sure to rejoice in your rapidly deteriorating composure over the course of the next week.”

Genji snickered in response while Jesse started pouting at you.

“Awww, sweet pea, don’t be like that,” he whined. “I thought you’d play nurse for me.”

“Fat chance.”

“You’re such a spoilsport. I already got’cha a costume,” he teased. “It’s tight and short and got one of those cute little hats.”

“Well, maybe Genji here will put it on for you,” you responded, getting up. “I bet he’d look real pretty.”

The snickers had stopped abruptly at your remark and the two boys were eyeing each other warily. Patting them both on the shoulders, you went off to face Commander Reyes.

You wandered the familiar path towards Gabriel’s office lost in thought. Well, lost in anxiety might be a more accurate description. With every step, you riled yourself up more, thinking of how awkward it’ll probably be from now on and whether or not he’d address it at all or if maybe you should mention it or if that would make it even worse. The mission itself was an afterthought for now, you were far too preoccupied by the churning sensation in your stomach; not sure whether that was caused by butterflies or plain nausea. Whenever you recalled the way he’d felt on top of you, a ball of heat would curl deliciously low in your belly, promptly followed by berating yourself to get your mind out of the gutter.

Taking a deep, calming breath, you knocked on his door.

“Come in,” he said.

His voice sounded more muffled than usual, making you frown. As you stepped into his office, you realised that he was still having lunch. What appeared to be a cookie was in one hand while he typed on his computer with the other. Sparing a quick glance at your watch, you noted that you were indeed a little bit early.

“Sorry, Commander,” you said sheepishly, “I didn’t look at the time. I can come back later, though!”

Gabriel gave you a look that was half amusement, half exasperation. “Don’t be ridiculous. Sit down,” he said with a jerk of his chin towards the chair in front of his desk.

“M’Kay,” you mumbled.

Once you’d set down, he asked, “Want some?”

“Nah, I’ve alrea—“

Your stomach growled. The fact that you hadn’t been able to eat more than a few forkfuls of your lunch made itself known.

He grinned up at you and held out the box of cookies towards you, shaking them teasingly under your nose. “You sure?”

Sighing dejectedly, you accepted his offer.  Apparently, he’d decided not to mention your little encounter this morning, judging by his jovial demeanour. As you reached out your hand, you noted that the box seemed to be wrapped in gift paper and those cookies looked awfully familiar. You frowned as you took one and examined it before taking a bite. A well-known flavour exploded on your tongue and you gasped before pointing an accusing finger at your Commander.

“My mum made these!”

His grin turned sharper, almost predatory, as he regarded you through half-lidded eyes. “Did she now?”

“Reyes! I know my mum’s baking when I taste it. Why the hell do you have them?”

“Why, your lovely mother sent me a care package.”

You stared at him open-mouthed for a few seconds, speechlessly. “She did what?!”

Gabriel hummed while settling his face into a serious expression. “Imagine my surprise when a parcel arrived for me here at the base today. It was addressed to Overwatch with the note to please hand it to Commander Reyes. Curious, isn’t it? Had a nice hand-written card inside, too.”

“That—,” you sputtered, “I—“

“Now, now,” he drawled. “No need to get all worked up over this, Agent. She was simply being thoughtful.”

You were still gaping at him like a fish out of water in your outrage before finally rediscovering the ability to form a coherent sentence. “That is not only beyond inappropriate—“

“More inappropriate than bribing me into playing your boyfriend?”

“—but also –“

“What?”

Pursing your lips at his continued interruptions, you forced out through clenched teeth, “I didn’t get a care package!”

He shook his head at you in mock pity. “My, that is unfortunate indeed.”

“That’s all you have to say to that?”

“I have a feeling,” he said, “and correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling that you haven’t responded too kindly to your mother sending you this type of mail in the past.”

That shut you up quick.

“Am I right?”

Squirming in your seat, you crossed your arms over your chest and reluctantly admitted, “Yes.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Yeah,” he said matter-of-factly as he grabbed another cookie, “now I don’t need to have even the slightest bit of remorse for enjoying these. Do feel free to eat some.”

You narrowed your eyes at the smug bastard. “How generous of you.”

“Hmmm. No need to thank me.”

Pointedly, you took a handful of them.

“Don’t get greedy, Agent, it doesn’t become you,” he teased.

You were tempted to stuff all four of them into your mouth at once just to defy him. Instead, you asked in a forcefully calm voice, “Why don’t you fill me in on that mission, Commander?”

Taking a swig of what you assumed to be coffee, his demeanour changed to one of pure professionalism in the blink of an eye. “During the Omnic Crisis I’d heard tales – whispers, really – about Omnic activity near the Alps in Germany but we were far too preoccupied with other locations to be able to afford chasing mere rumours. In the time since, I’ve kept an ear open and they’ve become significantly more solid over the past few months but there’s no concrete intelligence on Omnics doing anything they shouldn’t.”

Nodding, you leaned forward to brace your forearms on his desk. “Have you heard anything specific that gives those rumours enough credence to investigate?”

Gabriel nodded. “Weapons have gone missing near the area and there has been an increased amount of traffic that might suggest shipments being transported there. Tourists and locals have commented on an increasing number of Omnics, travelling in small groups. There’s reason to believe that they’ve created a stronghold there, stocking up on weapons and uniting Omnics in what might be a rebellion.”

“We better check it out then,” you said.

“We better,” he agreed.

“Who else is coming with us?”

“No one.”

You looked at him in surprise. “We’re going alone?”

“Yes.”

“You sure about that? Wouldn’t it be better to assemble a small squad? Maybe take Jesse and Genji with us?”

“It would be,” he sighed, “but we’re not only understaffed but low on budget as well.”

“Ah, crap.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Indeed. So, we’re going to go, do some recon and see what the situation is. Maybe those rumours are just that; rumours.”

“And if it turns out we’re having a rebellion on our hands?”

“Then we send for backup while –“

“We observe how they operate; find out their schedules and movements.”

Gabriel grinned at you appraisingly. “I’ve trained you well.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I happen to be naturally awesome,” you commented with a roll of your eyes. “Where exactly is it? Can you tell me yet?”

“Very close to Lake Koenigssee in Bavaria.”

Suppressing a smile at his adorably wrong pronunciation, you said, “And you think they’re hiding in the mountains, I assume?”

“Yes. And since you happen to speak German, you’re the perfect candidate,” he informed you.

“Reinhardt and Angela also speak German,” you pointed out dryly.

“But neither of them are Blackwatch. Angela is busy and Reinhardt draws way too much attention.”

You laughed. “And you think you don’t?”

“Are you calling me bad at covert ops, Agent?”

“No!”

You wanted to add that you thought only the blind wouldn’t notice someone who looked like Gabriel but, considering your earlier incident, you decided it might be best to keep your mouth shut.

“Didn’t think so,” he said, giving you a hard glare.

“No need to glare at me, Commander. You’re the head of covert ops, it would be rather ridiculous if you sucked at it.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

His voice had an affectionate edge to it and you couldn’t help but smile in response.

“Anything else I need to know?”

“Pack snow gear,” he said disgruntledly.

Hiding a smirk, you asked, “Not a fan of snow, Commander?”

The look you received in return had you biting the inside of your cheek in order to stop yourself from bursting into laughter.

“Who in the world likes snow?”

Gabriel sounded disgusted and utterly disbelieving at the mere concept.

If he thought you shared that sentiment, he was sadly mistaken. You happened to love snow. Hell, you’d marry snow if you could. But you didn’t tell him that since you were already delighted by the prospect of annoying him once you were surrounded by the fluffy whiteness.

So instead, you replied with, “No idea, Sir.”

* * *

 

A soft wind was blowing the dark clouds ever closer, creating gentle movement on the vast lake stretched out in front of you. This particular one had always fascinated you. As a child, you’d observed it for hours and hours. Many a summer had been spent here and you remembered how it usually resembled a glittering jewel. The surrounding mountains were covered in thick layers of snow at the moment, though, and since the setting sun was hidden behind those big, grey clouds, the usually stunning emerald-coloured surface currently resembled a dull mirror with its almost opaque appearance. Greedily, you gulped in the icy, unpolluted air while you were keeping your eyes open for any unusual activity. Your breath painted white clouds on the air as a slight tremor went through you from the low temperature. The utter lack of noise – cars, voices or even birdsong – made the hairs at the nape of your neck stand up. You knew this kind of stillness wasn’t that unusual in the mountains but it felt like your ears were stuffed with cotton, making you feel slightly off-balance.

Commander Reyes and you had gotten here early this morning, long before dawn, and had checked out the little town of Schoenau in search of anything out of the norm. Several times, you’d found your mind wandering as you recognised little things here and there. Soon enough though, you’d spied a trio of Omnics who seemed to be in a bit of a rush. Naturally, you’d followed them and they had led you out of the little town and straight to their meeting point in the mountains. It was too far away to determine what exactly they were up to. All you could say for sure for now was that there were other Omnics already there; whether or not that had any nefarious purpose was still a mystery. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, Gabriel had suggested finding higher ground that would allow you to keep an eye on the situation.

That had been eight hours ago.

There had been some movement during the day, a variety of Omnics coming and going, but nothing that gave those rumours any credence. Still, it was better to be thorough. Considering you’d already made the trip, you might as well make absolutely sure there was not even an inkling of a rebellion. Gabriel had decided to observe until nightfall, just to make sure they didn’t get active once the town went to sleep and if there still wasn’t anything suspicious going on, you’d go home.

It had started snowing about two hours ago and it was getting progressively thicker. Worriedly, you glanced towards the clouds that had turned from grey to a sickly purple in the last few minutes.

“Uhm, Commander?”

“What,” he replied curtly.

He’d been irritable ever since the first glimpses of snow. Normally, you’d be supremely annoyed if anyone dared letting their bad mood out on you, but Gabriel’s utter distaste for this kind of weather was hilarious to you. The big, bad Blackwatch Commander hadn’t stopped pouting all day and you thought it was beyond adorable. And, yes, that particular thought did make you cringe a bit. Not that you hadn’t been aware of your crush on him beforehand but you were unaccustomed to these sappy feelings invading your mind. More than once, you’d been sorely tempted to throw a snowball at him in response to his growly answers, though. Everything had its limits, after all; even your tolerance of Commander Reyes’ mood.

Raising your eyebrow at him, you said, “I think we might want to go find shelter for the night.”

Finally, Gabriel turned to look at you.

“We’re not staying the night. I highly doubt there’ll be any need for calling back-up, so we’ll get the fuck out of this godforsaken place soon.”

Wordlessly, you pointed above you. The wind had picked up, the snowflakes were getting thicker and you thought you’d seen lightning a few seconds ago, hidden in the depths of the clouds. As if on cue, a rumble of thunder made your ears ring.

“¡Mierda!” he spat.

If you hadn’t known the Commander as well as you did, his expression might have frightened you. Getting up from your position with a groan at your protesting muscles, you stretched in an effort to dispel the aches. You’d been lying on your stomach in the snow, scanning the area through your binoculars for what felt like an eternity. It was only -2°C though it felt much colder. But neither the chill nor the snow bothered you. Quite the contrary; you positively revelled in it. You may or may not have made a snow angel or two while you’d been lying down to Gabriel’s great amusement.

“What’s the matter, Sir? Still not sold on the snow?” you needled good-naturedly.

He levelled a glare at you that made your grin widen noticeably. “You’re a pain in the ass for even asking me that, you know that? Why would anyone want to live in a place where it gets this cold?”

“Because it’s nice?”

“It’s not nice,” he snapped with a growl. “Humans shouldn’t be in sub-zero temperatures.”

“No?”

“No—“

He was cut off by a snowball hitting him right in the face. You should have run right then, you knew that, but you were too busy laughing, doubled over, as you finally got to act on that urge you’d had all day. Tears of mirth were streaming down your face that started to freeze almost instantly. As he charged towards you, having gotten over his initial disbelief, you backed away while trying to grab handfuls of snow to make more snowballs.

The ski pants and jacket over the thermal underwear you’d donned made you significantly less agile and graceful. Your get-up was no comparison to his, though. You could only guess how many layers Gabriel was bundled up in but his body looked thrice its normal size; he reminded you of an oversized teddy bear and you’d teased him mercilessly about it when you’d first seen him all swaddled up.

Though that thought was quickly wiped from your mind as he caught up with you, somehow managing to move swiftly, unhindered by his clothes. Damn him. You squealed as he grabbed you in a headlock before rubbing a handful of snow in your face. Red-faced, breathless and still laughing, you sank to the ground, almost pulling him with you. Gabriel kept a grip on your upper arms while you tried to stop giggling.

“Had enough yet?” he asked, chuckling.

“If I say no, will we engage in an epic snowball battle?”

“No. If you say no, I’ll dunk you face-first into your beloved snow.”

Hiccupping in laughter, you replied, “My answer’s a firm yes then.”

“Good.”

His voice was almost stern, probably trying to convey how annoyed he was at your behaviour but his eyes were crinkling at the corners.

“Let’s find a hotel,” you said as he pulled you back to your feet before you used your scarf to dry your face.

He sighed before nodding. “Yeah.”

You made your way back into Schoenau only to get the same answer in every establishment, be it hotel or bed & breakfast; it was prime skiing season and they were fully booked. Meanwhile, the snowstorm had fully hit, which you noted with growing horror. Staying the night was no longer an option but a necessity. There was no way you could fly back home during a fucking blizzard.

Gabriel looked ready to murder the next person to tell him that there were no vacancies while you were starting to shiver ever so slightly with increasing frequency, trying desperately not to let him see it.

After having been turned away from what felt like a thousand guest houses, you entered a rather dingy-looking hotel. Gabriel determinedly walked up to the check-in counter, ringing the tiny bell. A minute or so later, an old man appeared, smiling kindly at the both of you.

“Excuse me, sir, would you happen to have free rooms?” Gabriel inquired.

“Äh, uhm –“ he started, coughing in embarrassment, “my English is not good. You need room, yes?”

“Yes, we –“

“Why don’t you let me?” you interjected before addressing the man. „Servus! Ich weiß, dass es Hochsaison ist, aber hätten Sie vielleicht noch Zimmer für uns?“ ( _Hello! I know it’s prime skiing season, but would you happen to have free rooms for us?_ )

His smile returned at your use of German. „Ah, das ist gut, dass einer von Ihnen Deutsch spricht. Da haben Sie sich aber eine schlechte Zeit ausgesucht, um auf gut Glück herzukommen.“ ( _Ah, how fortunate that one of you speaks German. You chose a particularly bad time to visit without booking in advance_.)

„Wir wurden vom schlechten Wetter überrascht. Eigentlich hätten wir uns heute Abend noch auf den Heimweg gemacht.“ ( _The bad weather surprised us. We’d planned on going home tonight._ )

He’d been typing on the computer while you’d explained the situation. „Verstehe. Ich habe leider nur noch ein Zimmer frei. Wäre das Ihnen und Ihrem Begleiter recht?” ( _I see. Unfortunately, I only have one free room left. Would that be alright for you and your companion?_ )

Holding up a finger at the man, you looked at Gabriel. “He’s only got one free room. Shall we take it?”

Huffing, he said, “Of course, he does. We don’t really have a choice, do we?”

You raised your eyebrows at him and shrugged.

“Yes,” he sighed, “we’ll take it. See if he’ll let us pay cash. The less paper trails we’ll leave, the better.”

“Okay,” you said before talking to the man once more. „Ja, dann wir würden das Zimmer gerne nehmen.“ ( _Yes, we’d like to take that room._ )

„Sehr gerne,“ he replied. „Wie würden Sie gerne zahlen?“ ( _Certainly. How would you like to pay?_ )

„Akzeptieren Sie Bargeld?“ ( _Do you take cash?_ )

„Selbstverständlich.” ( _Of course._ )

„Perfekt.“ ( _Excellent_.)

A little while later, you’d paid up front and were given a key to a room on the third floor. As you made your way up the stairs, you could hear the wind howling outside. You were doing your best to keep your teeth from chattering. It felt as though the cold had seeped into your very bones, though, which made you consider that it probably would have been a good idea to add an extra layer; impromptu snowball fight or not. You were so looking forward to a hot shower.

As you opened the door to your room, Gabriel said nonchalantly, “So, when are you going to admit that you’re freezing?”

You had your back to him, so he didn’t see your wide-eyed look that would have immediately confirmed his statement. “Huh?”

He scoffed. “You’ve been shivering for almost an hour now. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t notice?”

“If I were – which I’m not – it would be because of your retaliation earlier, Commander,” you replied airily as you stepped inside.

The disbelieving hum you got in response was oozing with so much mockery, you clenched your teeth in response. He might be right but you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.

You looked at your surroundings. The furniture was very simple; double bed, table, two armchairs, wardrobe and a chest of drawers that had a TV on top. Strolling towards the only other door in the room, you entered the bathroom; only the bare necessities, as expected. Everything looked a bit dated but clean. Inspecting the towels that were stacked on the bed, your assessment was confirmed. You were fine with it, because cleanliness was all that mattered to you, really.

Gabriel had divested himself of his thick jacket, scarf, beanie and mittens before he’d taken a look outside the window that overlooked the backyard, drawing the curtains closed. He was frowning as he put his hand on the heater.

“What is it?” you asked.

“The dial is turned to five, but the heater is barely warm.”

You groaned. “No, no, no. Don’t tell me the bloody heater isn’t working properly!”

Looking up at you from under his lashes, he asked slyly, “Why? Are you cold, Agent? Might this weather not be as ‘awesome’ as you’d like me to believe after all. Huh?”

Glaring at him, you opened your mouth to sass him but were cut off by a visible tremor shaking your body. He cocked his head at you as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Okay,” you said slowly, “maybe I went a tad too light on the layer situation.”

It hurt you to say that, even more so when a look of utter smugness settled on Gabriel’s face at your confession. You expected him to rub it in, but all he said was, “Go take a shower and warm up.”

Blinking at him in astonishment, you stayed rooted to the spot.

“Go,” he urged you, making a shooing motion. “You’re no use to me if you turn into an icicle. Nor do I want to listen to your whining if you get sick.”

You rolled your eyes at him. “So glad to know you’re concerned for my well-being.”

“I am. We’re understaffed as it is. I can’t have you taking days off to laze around just because you were too stupid to dress properly.”

With a huff, you shed your boots and ski clothes. Rummaging around in your backpack you dug out a change of underwear and a t-shirt before snatching a towel and retreating into the bathroom. Not for the first time you were grateful for your habit of always packing at least a change of knickers; too often had you been on missions that lasted longer than anticipated. There was nothing nastier than having to put on dirty underwear after having gotten cleaned up, in your opinion.

You set everything down next to the sink and eyed the shower curiously. Since the heater wasn’t properly working, you wondered whether the water would be hot. You had no intention of taking a cold shower. Switching the water on, you were relieved when it started to heat up pretty quickly. Taking off the rest of your clothing, noting with dismay that your skin was icy to the touch, which meant you really had gone too light on the layers, you hung the towel over the shower door and grabbed a tiny bottle of shower gel that the hotel had provided before stepping inside. With no intention to get your hair wet, you’d left it in its crown braid and adjusted the shower head so that it would only hit you from the neck down. Letting out a long, contented sigh, you closed your eyes as the hot water soothed your still aching muscles, chasing away the coldness.

You must have drifted off, because you jerked when you heard Gabriel yell, “Don’t waste all the hot water, Agent! Or did you drown yourself in there?”

Sighing, you cupped your hands together to wash your face before opening the shower gel – a non-descript scent containing the barest hint of vanilla – making quick work of getting properly cleaned up before turning the shower off and wrapping the towel around your body. When you left the shower, you immediately shivered. Even though the bathroom was filled with steam, the temperature was notably cooler outside the stall. Drying off, you would have loved to slather yourself in body lotion but beggars can’t be choosers in a situation like this. So you put on your fresh bra, knickers and socks before stepping back into the thermal pair of leggings and a clean Blackwatch t-shirt. This would do fine as sleepwear.

Exiting the bathroom with your discarded clothes in your arms, you were met with the familiar sight of Gabriel meticulously cleaning his shotguns. You frowned as you noticed the gun cleaning kit lying on the table, sending a glare its way since it was the indirect source of your cramped muscles.

He glanced up and arched an eyebrow at you. “Something the matter, Agent?”

You couldn’t keep the pout off your face as you said, “My muscles are sore.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Yours.”

“Mine?”

“Duh.”

“I don’t think so.”

“So it wasn’t you who made me get up at four in the morning only to torture me? Must’ve imagined it then.”

He smiled at your sarcastic tone. “Don’t lie to me again and you won’t have to repeat it.”

“Believe me, I won’t.”

“Good. At least you’ve learnt your lesson.”

You had the undeniable urge to throttle him. Instead, you threw a pillow. He’d anticipated it, though, and plucked it out of the air before it could hit him.

“What is it that inspires such violence in you towards me today?”

“Your face,” you said with a saccharine smile.

“So sorry to burden you with the sight of it, Agent.”

Nodding, you gave a long-suffering sigh. “It’s alright, Sir. It’s not as if you can help it.”

He threw the pillow back at you, hitting you square in the face. Pouting, you sat down on the bed with the pillow in your lap as you took a comb out of your bag and started undoing your hair.

“Didn’t you want to take a shower, Commander? Or was your yelling just meant to annoy me?”

“It was mostly meant to annoy you.”

You looked at him with a deadpan expression. “And you call me a pain in your arse.”

Gabriel smirked at that but got up after he reassembled his guns and put the solvent, cloth, oil, brush and cleaning rod back into the kit.

You’d just unravelled the braid when you realised that you were starving. Before Gabriel could close the bathroom door, you said, “Hey, Commander?”

“What now?” he asked, leaning against the door frame.

Narrowing your eyes at him, you started combing your hair.  “I was just gonna ask if I should go looking for something to eat, but maybe I should just mind my own business and let you figure yours out on your own.”

“Well, that would be a tragedy since I planned on sharing the rest of those delightful cookies your mother sent with you.”

“How many did she send you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

You pursed your lips. “I’ll see what I can find for dinner and you share dessert with me.”

“You got yourself a deal,” he said. “Anything else you wanna gripe about or am I finally allowed to shower?”

“You may shower now,” you said graciously.

He looked as though he wanted to give a retort but thought better of it. The door closed and you heard the shower start shortly after.

You chuckled to yourself as you finished combing your hair and stepped back into your ski pants and boots before leaving the room in search for food. The nice receptionist at the front desk told you this hotel only served breakfast and that delivery services were likely to be cancelled because of the storm, which had gotten to the point where you weren’t able to see anything but a white sheet of snow that was accompanied by the occasional flash of lightning and thunder. He offered to get you bread rolls and fruit, though, which you gladly accepted. There was also a small kiosk inside the hotel, so you hit that up and bought some snacks and beverages. All in all, your bounty wasn’t too shabby.

Arranging everything on the small table in your room, you discarded the ski pants and boots again before coming to stand at the window. Drawing the curtains back far enough to enjoy the spectacle outside, you opened a bottle of water.  A waft of steam escaped as Gabriel opened the bathroom door. You gawked at him before you could tear your gaze away; he had a towel slung around his broad shoulders and was wearing only black, boxer briefs – very tight ones…

For fuck’s sake! Did he have no shame? Not that he had any reason to be ashamed with a body like that but damn him for giving your stupid crush even more fodder. No one should be allowed to look like that. At least not around you.

Blushing fiercely, you snapped your head around and stared back out the window as you gulped thickly. It’s not as though you’d never seen your fellow Blackwatch agents – or even the Commander himself – in various stages of undress but this was just so, so … blatant. You tried your best not to think about how toned his entire body was.

“Oh, great. You found something to eat!” he said as he came to stand beside you.

“Would you get dressed, please?” you exclaimed more forcefully than intended.

He blinked  at you before a tiny smirk curled his lips. “Am I making you nervous, Agent?”

“No! Of course not. It’s just that it’s …“ you faltered, searching for a plausible explanation.

“Yes?” he prompted. “It’s what?”

“Y-y-you-“ you stuttered, “You’re gonna catch a cold so put on some goddamn clothes!”

Gabriel laughed softly before walking past you to his backpack. You swallowed thickly, willing yourself to stop blushing while taking a swig of the water and only turned around when the rustle of clothes had stopped.

“Better?” he asked.

You glanced at him from under your lashes as you walked towards the table. He was wearing pretty much the same attire now as you were and though the clothes did nothing to hide just how built he was, you at least weren’t looking at naked skin anymore. Thank god or you might’ve done something embarrassing like lick his bicep or something equally as stupid.

“Yes.”

“Don’t blush on my account, Agent,” he teased.

“Do shut up, please,” you groaned as you snatched a spare blanket from the wardrobe and curled up in one of the armchairs.

While the both of you devoured the dinner you’d managed to scrape together, you talked about the futility of this mission. It was always a relief when whispers of insurgent activity turned out to be false, of course, but it was also disappointing because it meant you’d just wasted valuable time and resources. As you ate the last of your mum’s cookies, you couldn’t hide your yawning and shivering. Frankly, you were exhausted and the cold was starting to creep back in. Gabriel watched you with a concerned look.

“What do you say we get some sleep?”

Nodding wordlessly, you gathered the empty wrappers of your food and threw them in the trash before walking towards the bed still wrapped in the blanket.

You were just about to ask him which side he preferred to sleep on when he said, “Take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Rolling your eyes at him, you replied, “Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not gonna sleep on the floor.”

“The sentiment is appreciated, Agent, but I won’t let you be the one to take the floor.”

“I wasn’t offering! No one’s gonna sleep on the bloody floor.”

“Are you suggesting sleeping together? That is beyond inappropriate conduct for an agent and her commanding officer.”

“Gabriel,” you sighed exasperatedly, putting your hands on your hips. “Get your mind out of the gutter, will you? If anyone were to sleep on the floor it would be me; you’re above me in rank, after all, but, like I said before, I’m not offering. So get over yourself.”

He frowned deeply at you and you weren’t sure if it was because of your explanation or the use of his given name. “Be that as it may, I’m a man, so I’ll let you have the bed. You need to warm up or you’ll really get a cold.”

“And here I thought chivalry was dead,” you said dryly. “Are you really gonna go all sexist on me now? Or do you think you’ll simply be unable to keep your hands off my ‘hot bod’?”

He threw you a dirty glare at that, undoubtedly fuelled by your argumentative uncooperativeness. “I’d like to believe I have more self-control than to molest one of my agents. And besides, I think I’m the one who’d need to be concerned about his virtue, considering the way you’ve been ogling me.”

You gaped at him. “I’m sure I’ll be able to control myself,” you said with a roll of your eyes.” And  I need you to help me get warm.”

“You’re a pain, you know that?”

“You might’ve mentioned it once or twice. Now, which side do you usually sleep on?”

“The right.”

“Alrighty,” you said cheerfully, not mentioning that you normally also slept on the right side of the bed.

Crawling into bed, you lay down facing away from him, curling up into a foetal position. You felt the bed dip behind you as he got in.

“I bet you’re really glad right now it’s me and not Reinhardt who accompanied you, huh?” you whispered.

He hummed. “I doubt a discussion about sharing a bed would’ve been necessary with him. We never would’ve fit together.”

You could hear the smile in his voice and smirked in response. The extra blanket you’d snatched up seemed to do absolutely nothing in providing warmth, so you were relieved when Gabriel’s body heat slowly but surely warmed up the bed.

Sighing in bliss, you told him, “You’re like a furnace.”

Before long, you were fast asleep, not even registering his answer.

* * *

 

Something heavy was slung over your waist and as you started to gain consciousness, you became aware of a leg wedged in between yours and a warm body pressed to your back before also noticing soft breaths stirring the hair at the top of your head. Gabriel must have snuggled closer during the night. You needed to pee, so you tried carefully disentangling yourself from your Commander’s hold. His first response at your movement was to mutter something unintelligible and pull you even closer. If you hadn’t needed to use the bathroom rather urgently you might’ve laughed at how disgruntled he managed to sound even in sleep. Hell, if you hadn’t needed to use the bathroom, you would have happily stayed exactly where you were. As you tried to wriggle out of his hold, he gave a displeased grumbling noise. Somehow you got his grip to loosen just enough to be able to halfway sit up. Preparing to climb out, you weren’t even able to swing your legs out of bed before Gabriel stirred and tightened his grip again, bringing his face level with your neck now that you’d changed your position. He burrowed his face into the nape of your neck and murmured something in his sleep that sounded suspiciously like ‘gatita’. His hot breath hitting your sensitive skin sent shivers through you that had nothing to do with being cold.

You must’ve vocalised your rapidly mounting arousal somehow, because he roused from his sleep enough for his arm to go slack, so you seized the opportunity to slip out of bed. Through your rapid heartbeat that seemed to pulse in your ears, you dimly noted the noise from the storm. Padding into the bathroom, you did your business without turning on the light, hoping to be able to fall back asleep swiftly in a minute, and took a look out of the window after you’d washed your hands. You saw that the blizzard was still going strong and blearily returned to the bedroom, already missing the intimacy of being nestled in your Commander’s arms.

By the time you made it back to bed, you were rubbing your hands up and down your arms to alleviate the goosebumps that had erupted from the chilly air. Gingerly, you crept back into bed, folding yourself into your initial position so you might take advantage of Gabriel’s body heat once more. He curled himself back around you readily enough and it only took what felt like seconds before you were drowsy again.

You were on the brink of sleep when Gabriel let go of you all of a sudden in a rapid movement that made you draw your brows together in a frown. Suddenly bereft of the warmth he’d been emanating, you turned around to face him, reaching out a hand for him and connecting with his arm.

Slurring your words, you asked, “Gabe? Wha’d’yadoin’? S’cold.”

Before he could answer or get further away, you’d shifted towards him and draped yourself over his chest like a contented cat, soaking up his heat.

“Agent …,” you heard him murmur, sounding reluctant.

Your only answer was to press your face into his shirt and snuggle as close to him as you possibly could. The last thing you noticed before sleep claimed you were his arms coming up around you; one hand soothingly rubbing up and down your back while the other cupped your neck to draw small circles into your skin with his thumb.

* * *

 

You woke up to an empty, cold bed. Sitting up swiftly, you took in your surroundings. The curtains were drawn back and the blizzard had softened to heavy snowfall. By the lack of noise, you knew you were alone. Frantically searching the room, you breathed a sigh of relief when your eyes fell on his bag before chiding yourself about worrying he’d left you behind. Commander Reyes would never do that.

Since there was no note or anything, you assumed he was out to get breakfast or something, so you decided to get ready in the meantime. Luckily, the complimentary toiletries included a toothbrush and toothpaste. You just finished pinning up your hair once more when the door opened.

Gabriel entered with two paper bags under his arm and two Starbucks cups that made your eyes light up with the promise of coffee.

“Good morning, Sir,” you greeted softly.

“Morning,” he said gruffly before handing you a coffee and dropping one of the bags in your lap.

You looked at him from under your lashes as you took a sip and opened the bag to find a cinnamon bun and doughnut.

“Thanks for getting breakfast, Commander,” you said but only got a sharp nod in response.

He wasn’t meeting your eye. Your heart sank as you dimly recalled throwing yourself at him after you’d used the bathroom last night. Apparently, you’d made things awkward. Again. After the end to that training session you’d been elated when he’d decided not to distance himself from you but it seemed as though he’d thought better of it now. You’d gotten too comfortable with him, having thought nothing of acting the way you did yesterday.

“You think you can eat that on the way?” he asked. “We should get back as soon as possible.”

“Sure.”

Gabriel had barely waited for you answer before he’d picked up his bag and left. The bite you’d just taken out of the cinnamon bun turned to ashes in your mouth as you followed him outside. This was gonna be a long flight home if he chose to spend it in tense silence.


End file.
